Tacoma paper: Make sure Seattle pays for tunnel overruns

Following news that state officials are offering bidders $230 million in concessions in the contract to build the $4.2 billion Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel replacement, The (Tacoma) News Tribune says it’s more important than ever that Seattle taxpayers pick up the tab for any cost overruns.

That “stick-it-to Seattle” clause was added to the viaduct bill last year, at the insistence of House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle. It states that Seattle taxpayers would have to cover any cost overruns on the project. It is believed to be the only time a municipality has been required to pay for cost overruns on a state transportation project.

City Council members and others have said they believe the clause is unenforceable – and Attorney General Rob McKenna agrees. But Mayor Mike McGinn has made that clause the centerpiece to his objections to the project.

“…the shrinking reserve fund is all the more reason why the state Legislature must continue to defend its 2009 deal on the viaduct.

That’s the deal under which Seattle – in exchange for getting a tunnel rather than a new viaduct or surface option – was required to accept the risk of cost overruns. The same deal that Seattle politicians are trying mightily to undo or outright deny.

The Seattle City Council is fighting Mayor Mike McGinn to keep the project on track, but even the council seems to be operating on the assumption that state lawmakers won’t have the gumption to follow through on billing Seattle property owners should the viaduct project run over budget.

If push comes to shove, the Legislature must do as it said it would: Hold Washington taxpayers’ harmless for Seattle’s insistence that the state go the gold-plated route to replace the quake-damaged viaduct.”